Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai where Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered on January 20. Photo: christiankloeppel on Flickr

A story of murder and intrigue is dominating the news in Israel and beyond.

News commentators, law enforcement officials and political leaders are scrambling to piece together evidence leading to the identification of the perpetrators.

At least 11 members of the group suspected of the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on January 20 used European passports, according to Dubai police officials. Another six suspects have yet to be identified.

Six of the suspects held British passports, while the others used Irish, French and German documents to enter the UAE. Both the British and the Irish governments have said the passports were fake and want to investigate further.

The Irish and German counterfeit documents even had the wrong number of digits and letters.

There are conflicting reports from the Dubai police, and it is unclear whether al-Mabhouh was injected with a lethal drug or strangled in his hotel room.

Hamas, the Islamist group in control of the Gaza Strip, and al-Mabhouh’s family have blamed the Israeli national intelligence agency, Mossad, for the assassination. But Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman claims there is no proof that Israel was behind the crime.

It is certainly true that the Dubai assassination has a number of characteristics in common with Mossad operations in the past. In addition the al-Mabhouh assassination occurred at a time when Israel is being accused of engaging in a subversive, undeclared war in the region.

There’s no conclusive proof yet that this was a Mossad operation but the images [of the suspects] do at least carry suggestions that the individuals involved had taken measures to conceal their identities.

For instance, this crew all seem to go to an optician who specializes in retro-frames – hunky ugly ones that stand out until the operative stops wearing them or switches to an everyday designer frame. The woman, minus blond wig and ruby lipstick would also lose her signature look. Six shaved/cropped heads – again, a few months of hair growth and they’ll be harder to pick out.

As Dubai police indicated in their briefing, this team even went to the lengths of avoiding using cell phones. Add all this up and this looks like an operation meticulously designed to be clandestine.

Everyone is blaming everyone else for the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai – but almost everyone blames the one country that there is no evidence for (yet).

The latest: Dubai police extradited two Palestinian Arabs from Jordan and arrested them in connection with the murder, and one of them is a [Palestinian Authority] official. So Hamas is accusing the PA of working with the Israelis in planning the hit.

The PA, meanwhile, says that Hamas members themselves must have been involved, and that Israeli intelligence has penetrated the highest leadership positions of Hamas (something that Hamas itself has been investigating.)

Dubai police had meanwhile given out photos of eleven people they say were involved, plus a very neat videotape showing parts of the operation.

Watch a Gulf News compilation of CCTV footage of the hit squad’s movements in the Dubai hotel:

Comments

11 comments

#11

02/25/2010 :: 10:50:00 AMBRANT Says:

What difference does it make who killed this killer?
The world in which we live, if Israel killed Hitler 60 years ago, the world would have condemned Israel for that too !
Placing way too much time on this issue, perhaps nations who play this “moral” high-ground shouldnt be the first to get on Israels’ case !
Nations do this all the time………going after murderers abroad and we hear nothing of it !
Can you say DOUBLE STANDARD?

#10

02/23/2010 :: 05:30:01 PMjgarbuz Says:

On your segment on Afghanistan, one resident told the journalist, ” We want Islam, not democracy.” That pretty much sums everything up in a nutshell. The world is divided by those who want democracy, and those who want totalitarian theocracy. Hamas is squarely on the side of totalitarian theocracy and hence an enemy of what both America and Israel stand for.

#9

02/23/2010 :: 02:54:03 PMHiro Says:

cover up!

#8

02/22/2010 :: 07:08:35 PMDoron L Says:

The coverage of this issue (22 Feb.) was very one-sided. Martin Savidge referred to Al Mabhouh as a “top official of Hamas”.

This “top official” was personally repsonsible for the murder of civilians – dispatching suicide bombers, etc.

No doubt had he been Al Quaeda, Savidge would have lauded the operation. But this is Israel, and it is supposed to patiently sit back, and take all the suicide bombs, rocket attacks, boycotts, etc. and wait to be wiped off the earth.

Other nations have used targeted assassination – with drones, with secret agents, …

#7

02/19/2010 :: 05:38:27 PMMark Wayson Says:

A salute to the Dubai police for adhering to the rule of law. The U.S. has abandoned this cornerstone of democracy. We have a number of large ‘dead or alive’ bounties out on various unconvicted Muslim fighters. Israel is our proxy in the middle east, but maybe we killed Mr. al-Mabhouh as a democratic ‘favor’ or some other middle east faction.

#6

02/19/2010 :: 02:59:24 PMBJ1949 Says:

Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? UNTIL or UNLESS you have actual PROOF Israel’s secret service agency is supposedly GUILTY of this murder, you are supposed to use the term “alleged”. Israel’s enemies are willing to do anything–even commit MURDER–to make it APPEAR Israel is supposedly GUILTY, as an excuse to start a war against Israel. For all we know at this point, it might have been assassins working for any of Israel’s enemies, including Iran, who committed this murder.

#5

02/18/2010 :: 07:36:58 PMmichael Says:

The Mossad is a Zionist criminal organization just like the Gestapo. Unfortunately the U.S. Government subsidize these thugs.

#4

02/18/2010 :: 11:16:28 AMMark Bernadiner Says:

Assassinated illegal arm dealer, responsible for death of hundreds of civilians, including children, used Dubai as transshipment base for weaponry transfer. Dubai police must investigate his contacts in Dubai. Looks like Dubai police is hiding something and looking for “escape goat”.

#3

02/18/2010 :: 01:34:03 AMCheshire Cat Says:

There’s no end to this… a successor just steps in and takes his place.

#2

02/18/2010 :: 12:16:22 AMkerry Masterson Says:

Nice — Mossad, we all know it was you who killed this brazen murderer. Since when has Israel not taken action to eliminate its foes or to hide that fact ? The world understands your actions to defend your right to exist. There is no reason to hide behind murder plots which are clearly taken from Hollow Wood movies, killing a bad man is doing the whole world a justice–keep up the good work.